Coach Jackson conference call transcript

Answer: Obviously, I talked about Hiram last night, that he hurt his hip, a dislocation there. The other guys are, obviously, we are further evaluating some knees, and we’ll know more as we move forward.

Q: Anything you see from tape that revealed something different from what you saw live?

A: Yes, I did. Obviously, when you get a chance to go back and watch it all, there was a lot of positives. Obviously, there’s some things to clean up. But, starting with the positives, just the tempo of the defense, the six plays that they were able to play, it was outstanding. Obviously, SeaBass was incredible in the game. The offense kept the ball for 31-plus minutes, 20 first downs. We threw the ball with more confidence and more assurance. There was only one three-and-out the whole football game. So, those were positives. Obviously, there were some negatives, too, with the penalties, our issues in the scoring zone that we have to fix and, obviously, the explosive plays that we gave up on defense. Those things in a first preseason game are things that a lot of people are trying to overcome, and we will. It was good to see some guys really competing and getting after it. We have something to build on there.

Q: Is being better in the red zone a matter of practice, or play-calling?

A: It’s a matter of practice. Like I said, we’ve been there for two weeks and we’re trying to pack everything in as fast as we can and sometimes you don’t get to hit on all the things that you got to hit on right away. You get bits and pieces. We weren’t trying to truly gameplan a team. At the time, one time it was Trent (Edwards) down in there and another time it was Kyle (Boller). Kyle’s been around the team, and we might have had the opportunity to do some different things with him, but Trent hasn’t been here very long. So, you didn’t want to put a guy in a situation to try to do something he really hasn’t had an opportunity to practice. As we move forward, we’ll make sure that those things are all tidied up and ready to go.

Q: What do you say to the young guys who had rough games, that games are different than practice?

A: There’s no question. As I keep talking about performance. It’s the performance in games. Napa’s beautiful, very comfortable, very great place to train and prepare a football team. But, when it’s all said and done, you got to go do it on game day. When the lights are on and when you’re playing against an opponent. It’s all about performance. That light is on now. Our guys understand that. These young guys will come back and fight this week.

Q: Are you comfortable with the young players you have at cornerback?

A: I’m comfortable because they’re young players, and young players got to play to get better. It’s something we’ll continue to look at as we continue to move forward. But those young guys, they’ll step up. They got to rise up and play, and I expect that they will.

Q: Can they rise up in the next month?

A: Yeah, I think so because, again, you get back into the groove of practicing, you get back into the groove of competing, understanding the (tendencies) of people you’re playing. As you know, last night we didn’t do anything to say, Let’s go take some receiver away, to assist or to help. Sometimes you got to put them out there and let them fail a little bit so you can find out about them. Our guys will rise up to the challenge this week.

Q: You like that DeMarcus Van Dyke went up against Larry Fitzgerald right away?

A: Absolutely. And what I’m going to tell the young man, I’ve seen that man catch that ball on a lot of great cornerbacks. But the thing that was most impressive was the next opportunity that he had to cover him they threw another deep ball and he was right with him stride for stride and there was an opportunity there to make a good play on the ball. So I was impressed with this guy. He’s not afraid. I think he wants to compete and again, we’ve just got to continue to indoctrinate these young players into pro football. And they will get it. Every play you have to go out there and compete as hard and as fast as you can to give yourself a chance to have success.

Q: Is there an update on Hiram?

A: No, I don’t have that information at this time.

Q: What about Schilens?

A: Not right now. We’re just further evaluating what’s going. I think later in the week we’ll know.

Q: Some coaches make players run for penalties in practice. Are you going to have to do that?

A: Yes, if it continues exist. I want to chalk it up to two weeks in training camp, first-game jitters, out with the old in with the new, more emphasis on snap count and all the things we’ve tried to address. That’s what I want to say when this happen, that’s what I want to say it was about. If it continues to exist then yeah, we have to turn the page and try something different. I’m not going to just sit there and keep letting it happen. Obviously Khalif (Barnes) was very disappointed as were all the young men who had illegal procedures. As I said after the game, I was able to address all that with out team. They were very disappointed and they know it’s something we have to fix. I don’t want them to stress about it too much, but it is something we obviously have to take care of.

Q: Did Zac Etheridge get hurt?

A: Yes, he did get hurt last night. I think there’s also, there’s something with a knee and again, we’re getting all that information and we’ll get that to you guys as soon as we can.

Q: What are the main things you wanted to see in the game that didn’t happen?

A: I think the biggest thing I wanted to see was us execute our offense and our defense at the next level where when we’re in the scoring zone we expect to score touchdowns, and when we’re defending the scoring zone, we know exactly where we need to be. Sometimes communication things, there were a couple of communication breakdowns here and there. That this team takes the next jump from training camp to one preseason game now to the second preseason game. It’s time to turn up the intensity a little bit more and continue to get better.

Q: What did you see from the three quarterbacks?

A: I was impressed with all of them. Obviously, Jason (Campbell) did a fabulous job of running the first team and getting the ball to different people. That’s what we were trying to do last night is get everybody an opportunity to touch the ball. Got Kevin Boss involved real early, tried to get Marcel (Reece) involved real early, got Darrius Heyward-Bey involved early and Jason did a great job of spreading the ball around. Kyle came in and he lit it up, eight of nine, he was spectacular. That’s what I expect from him. Obviously Trent, who hadn’t been here very long, I was so impressed with him because here he is getting the information from me and trying to figure it out in his mind and then going out and executing pretty flawlessly. I thought he did an excellent job. There’s a couple of throws he wished he had back but I thought all three of those guys showed me the poise, showed me the hard work they put into this and they have the ability to lead this football team.

Q: Is No. 2 quarterback one of most intriguing camp battles?

A: It could be, no doubt, because both of those young men are very competitive and they want that opportunity. It also makes it fun. Those guys go and every day they compete in the classroom and they compete on the field and they’re very good friends. It’s a very good room and very good chemistry in there. I think it’s exciting.

Q: Might you give Boller more time than Edwards in upcoming games?

A: Oh yeah. We’ll see as we go. Obviously as we get closer, we get ready to play a game. I have to make sure our first group is ready to go. There’s no doubt. I also have to know what our backup quarterback can do. I think we have two very good candidates back there that we can pick from.

Q: How did things go with you in terms of red flag, timing, talking to Al up in the box? (This was in reference to offensive coordinator Al Saunders. Jackson took it to mean managing general partner Al Davis.)

A: I didn’t talk to Al up in the box. Let’s make that clear right now. I don’t know where that one came from. I was very comfortable. As I told you I have very good coaches who give me information. Obviously I threw the flag last night. It was awesome. The officials were great other than a couple of situations. I thought for the first night I felt it was a great night for everyone involved. Obviously we wanted to win the game. We didn’t do the ultimate which was win the game. But for the first time for all of us to have an opportunity to go play a game, be in the stadium, be on the headset, coach a game, talk to each other, get our players out there playing against a different opponent. I thought it was a good start. That’s all it was, was a start. By no imagination is that who we are or what we’re going to be. Like I tell everyone, we’re going to become something. I really like what we’re going to become.

Q: Did you think of going for it on 4th-and-goal from the 3-yard line instead of kicking the field goal?

A: Yes, I did. I truly did. All of those thoughts go through your mind but you know, there’s a time and a place for everything. The thing I liked about last night is there is so many different situational football things that we got to practice. We got to practice coming out. I got to practice making a decision, exactly where that ball was, as you’re talking about, at the 3-yard line. We got to work on scoring zone, which we weren’t very good at last night. We got to work at a two-minute situation. We got to work at the last three, four plays of a game. There was so many things that are on this tape to grow from and get better at that we would have already done way back in OTAs and mini-camp. Not against an opponent, but things we would have rehearsed over and over and over and now those things are coming up, and for the first time out of the chute to have all those things happen, I thought it was fantastic.

Q: Which of the offensive linemen stood out?

A: I think when I go back and I watch the tape, I really thought that Sammy Satele played good, I thought (Stefen) Wisniewski did an excellent job, I mean, unbelievable job. I thought that Stephon Heyer did some really good things. I thought that even Joe Barksdale was in there battling. I thought our second group, ’cause they played more football, obviously than the ones, those guys really showed up. They did a good job. I mean, our quarterback, there was one sack that we had, which was a communication issue and the other one was right before the half, which never should have been a sack. So for the most part, they kept the quarterback pretty clean. And that was good to see. Do we need to continue to get better? No doubt. But I think our guys, that front, is really starting to come together.

Q: That sack before the half that shouldn’t have happened, what happened there?

A: Sometimes when you ID a defense, the communication between everybody has to go throughout the whole offense, from the front to the back, and the guy didn’t see him correctly and those things happen sometimes. Those things do creep up on you when you haven’t had a ton of practice time.

Q: Jared Veldheer seemed to do a nice job on Joey Porter, so is he a guy you’re more comfortable with out there at left tackle?

A: There’s no question, and I feel remiss to not mention him. He did a great job, too, I mean, Stephon, Jared, Sammy, (Joseph) Barksdale, those guys all did a real good job, and obviously Heyer. I thought those guys battled last night and I think they’ll get better as we go.